Roz Morris follows up her bravura Nail Your Novel with this insightful guide into crafting memorable characters She walks authors through the basics of protagonists, antagonists, and supporting characters She touches on dialogue, showing vs telling, motive and conflict, and character relationships My favorite sections were those on the ever popular character interview questionnaire in which Morris offers some unique suggestions for probing the character s mind and the appendix in which she addre [...]

Some good pointers I especially liked the detailed list of questions the author provided I will be adding them to the ones I use to better know my characters There s a lot of good advice about making protagonists likeable but not perfect, sympathetic but not whiny, etc and some good tips about creating secondary characters, which I think is often something that can be an afterthought for some writers This is the second of the Nail Your Novel books that I ve read and I definitely plan on buying [...]

It will destroy hope, and we don t want to do that But, it is true that one cannot learn the prerequisites for being a good novelist Some things you have to natively know Understanding that doesn t make you one of those useful beings either Think about it You need to know people Not get the understanding from the useless batches of folderol that you will be served up by those that make a buck from interpreting life, but the grain of things that are practiced daily from within the urge to move fo [...]

I discovered Roz Morris via another writing blog Honestly I think some days I subscribe to too many Everyone s methods are different and that can be confusing There are as many different writing methods as there are writers But Roz is fairly sensible and she gives good practical advice Today I saw this on one of her blog posts about starting a story, writing a big chunk and then making a plan When I think about it, a good half of writing is rescue and salvage Sorting out muddles and solving prob [...]

Perfect for where I m at in my first draft of my first novel, and has given me great ideas to work with on many revision passes to come She does a wonderful job sharing her experience, giving examples, and then doing a nice summary of tools for each chapter And it s a quick read so you can zip through it and apply immediately For Roz, I saw you on your interview with Joanna on the Creative Penn and you sold the book well with what you shared Bravo And thank you.

First, a disclaimer I m a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors ALLi , and so is Roz Morris That s as far as the connection goes I ve never met her, though I ve seen plenty of her posts and know quite a bit about what she has to say about writing I did not get this book free I paid to download it, and I downloaded it because I wanted to read it I have read a number of books by ALLi members I ve reviewed some of them and not others My general rule is that I don t publish a review unless I [...]

It s like a pocket rocket Concise and yet packs useful advice than many other bulky books about the art of writing This is currently my go to book for creating my characters.

Nail Your Novel comes to the rescue of all writers, aspiring, new or hard bitten, who are stuck in the mire of plot holes, dead ends and tangled sub plots Roz Morris s guidance will haul you out.

In his Foreword to the 40th Anniversary Edition of Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury wrote I had been writing short stories from the age of twelve.ing that I might never dare to leap off a cliff into a novel Here, then, was the beginning of my daring to jump, without parachute, into a new form Well, if you are about to take that clifftop leap into novel writing, fear not Roz Morris has provided the parachute that will protect you from landing in a crumpled heap of uncrafted characters.In her previous [...]

Some time ago I read Roz Morris s first Nail Your Novel book, Nail Your Novel Why Writers Abandon Books and How You Can Draft, Fix and Finish With Confidence which gives advice on what to do with a first draft and how to work on it so that you don t end up hurling the dratted thing into the shredder and taking up crochet instead.It so impressed me with its step by step guide and common sense that when I saw the author had published this follow up I bought it without even reading the blurb.Nail Y [...]

I have been following Roz Morris s writing blog and found it to be choc full of advice for writers This led me to her books and this one in particular What a find it turned out to be This is a simple book but do not let this fool you that it is not good I have read many books on writing and I would say this contains some of the best advice on writing characters All characters are considered, both the main characters and the supporting cast Every aspect of characterisation is covered These are su [...]

One 2 or 3 star review on mentioned getting confused about the layout font causing problems with the flow of the book I too had the same problem All the interruptions with the extras thumbnail text, games, etc really threw me off.Sometimes, the author would be trying to explain a thought, then insert one or several of these asides, and then by the time she got around to making her point, I would be totally confused and have to go back and re read what she initially meant to say Even confusing s [...]

Some great tips here, brief and to the point It highlights key mistakes that are so easy to fall into and provides good examples alternative ways to go about character building techniques I will use this book regularly to keep on track when my characters start causing me problems Would recommend Helps if you have a manuscript to see where you may have been going wrong.

This book is all you need to know about creating great characters Filled with detailed analysis, it contains multiple techniques of character building and psychology behind fictional characters Highly recommended for any writers, especially to those struggling with characterisation and exposition.

Another fantastic HOW TO by Roz Morris She has a wonderful way of making me feel like I get it That I can do it Which in a difficult journey and writing a novel is that is invaluable Bringing Characters to life not only tells you that you have to bring characters to life, it shows you how to do it effectively Can t ask for than that

This handy book is a quick read and full of tips for the writer Very helpful, especially, for the newer writer Ms Morris is one of my favorite s to follow and always has wonderful information to share I gave it three stars because although those were great tips, I wanted meat, so to speak, on the bones of the tips.

Good, solid ideas A lot to think about and consider while crafting characters I imagine I ll use this book as somewhat of a reference when I m struggling with certain aspects of characterization for years to come

There are some great tips and tricks for creating good characters in this book and I m sure I ll come back to this book again However, I wasn t so keen on the layout design of the book as parts of it seemed to merge into one so if I kept re reading bits that I d already read.

Excellent advice